WICKER PARK — A triangular building that straddles Milwaukee Avenue and Wood Street has had its upper floors boarded up since the late 1970s and looks abandoned, but the longtime owner of the Wicker Park building said it is being used.
"Maybe I'm being self indulgent, but I'm at an age where if I can keep doing what I'm doing, I would like to," said Robert Stiebel, whose family has owned the building at 1401 to 1409 N. Milwaukee Ave. and an empty lot at 1411 N. Milwaukee Ave. since the early 1900s.
Stiebel, 68, uses the two upper floors for storing sewing equipment and to work on tailoring projects for a wholesale tailoring business.
A closed-to-the-public Free People showroom moved into one of the three storefronts on the ground level five years ago, after Imperial Men's Clothing closed, ending 103 years of business on the street. That storefront is currently for rent, according to a real estate brochure.
Stiebel's grandfather and great uncle started Imperial Men's Clothing in the early 1900s.
Stiebel declined to be photographed while working in the upper floors.
"I've never felt uncomfortable there, it's always been my home away from home. I find it very peaceful," he said.
Stiebel said real estate developers have approached him over the years about buying the building or developing the two upper floors, which offer about 4,000 square feet.
"It's not to say that one of my kids won't [develop] it. I don't doubt at some point I will be talked out of [keeping] it," Stiebel said.
Brent Norsman, a local architect, is one of the many admirers of the building.
Norsman said he has always thought the upper floors "would make for an incredible office or living space with fabulous views."
Norsman posted a photo of the building on Instagram and called it a "mini flatiron," referring to the much larger triangular Flat Iron Arts building one block north at 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave.
"Even in its boarded-up state it has an urban patina that I find attractive. Much of the buildings vintage storefront is still intact, which makes for a rare, nearly complete Historic Building on Historic Landmark Milwaukee Ave," Norsman said.
The three-story building was constructed in the 1880s, according to a 2007 report by the city's Department of Planning and Development, which lists the building as "contributing" to the Milwaukee Avenue Landmark District.
Another building, at 1411 N. Milwaukee Ave., was demolished after a fire that started on the back porch and spread to 1401-1409 N. Milwaukee Ave., Stiebel said.
The upper levels of the building have remained boarded up since the fire, which claimed the lives of five adults and four children, according to the Jan. 2, 1977 edition of the Chicago Tribune.
The blaze had started in the back stairs of a third-floor apartment shortly after midnight on New Year's Day. All of the victims were related and had been at a party hosted by a 54-year-old woman who died in the blaze as well.
Six of the victims were found on the third floor of the building while three were found in the rubble, and eight others escaped the blaze by climbing onto a 5-foot-by-8-foot sign that was affixed to the building with chains, according to the front page Tribune report.
That same sign still hangs from the building today and is currently advertising the Free People brand.
Eight people were saved from a fire by climbing out of an apartment window onto this sign, according to a 1977 Tribune report.
Stiebel said the cause of the fire was eventually determined to be arson, but no one was ever arrested.
Ken Lubinski, whose family has operated Lubinski Furniture at 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave. since the 1930s, said the apartments above 1401-1409 N. Milwaukee Ave. have been boarded up since the fire.
"Nobody ever questioned" why the building still was boarded up, Lubinski said.
John Waldmueller, a 73-year-old retired Chicago Firefighter was 30 at the time of the blaze and just a few years into his long career.
Reached at his home in Huntley, Waldmueller said that he will always remember the tragic fire.
"It was really cold. The hydrants were frozen and needed to be torched in order to thaw," he said.
Though some of his fellow firefighters were seriously injured while fighting the blaze, Waldmueller was able to continue working after getting "whacked and knocked down by a piece of plywood" and falling into the snow and water and debris.
Waldmueller said that whomever started the fire "torched the stairwells and gasolined them so nobody could get out."
Since his son lives in the Wicker Park area, and used to work at the nearby Beachwood Inn, Waldmueller has returned to the site over the years.
"Every time we walk by. I remember that building. It is kind of strange that it never reopened. It's just there. Sometimes, that's what the attraction is, you walk by and think,'it's still boarded,'" Waldmueller said.
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